Anjuman Mazarain Punjab (AMP)
One of PRM’s founding movements, and arguably the most dynamic struggles of working people of the past two decades. A movement of landless tenant farmers on approximate 70,000 acres of state land across Punjab province, AMP has indubitably been the symbol of opposition to the Musharraf dictatorship and more generally representative of the widespread resentment that many Pakistanis feel towards the state’s resource-grabbing antics. AMP’s uniqueness is reflected in the direct challenge it posed to the army in the district of Okara which in the heartland of Punjab - Pakistan’s most powerful province on which the civil-military oligarchy has historically depended (including during colonial times) to consolidate its domination.
For detailed information about AMP see:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~ampinfo/
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/pakistan0704/
Contacts:
Mehr Abdul Sattar, General Secretary, Chak 4/4-L, Okara Military Farms, Okara
Ph: (92) – 300 – 696 1545
Liaquat Ali, Chairman, Chak 45/3-R, Okara Military Farms, Okara
Ph: (92) – 300 – 430 7898
All-Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis
Another of PRM’s founding movements, the Alliance was one of the first struggles to challenge the military government of Pervez Musharraf. Upon coming to power, Musharraf appointed ex-DG ISI General Javed Ashraf to the Railways Ministry. Ashraf proceeded to launch an indiscriminate eviction operation against all katchi abadis (squatter settlements) on Railways land across the country which precipitated a spontaneous movement of resistance. While evictions and responses to them have always been a phenomenon in Pakistan, the Alliance was the first such organised response in over three decades. It remains active in a number of Pakistan’s urban centres, resisting eviction, lobbying the state to redress its elitist planning paradigm, and working for the upgradation of existing squatter settlements.
Contact:
Zahid Ali Anjum, President, Dars Baray Mian, Moghalpura, Lahore
Ph: (92) – 300 – 470 2088
Sindu Bachao Tarla / Chashma Lok Sath
The struggle of indigenous peoples and many others who are victims of ‘big development’ is one of global dimensions. In Pakistan too struggles against mega dams and canals can be found even if sometimes scattered and unorganised. Most of the resistance to such projects is found in the Siraiki belt and Sindh where historical communities settled around rivers have been subject to the worst ecological and social impacts of IFI-funded projects. In recent times awareness about such ‘development’ and resistance to it has become more organised under the umbrella of groups such as the Sindhu Bachao Tarla and Chashma Lok Sath.
See
http://www.chashma-struggles.net/
Contact:
Mushtaq Gadi, C/O PRM
Ph: (92) – 334 – 509 6928
